Will the Abraham Accords Recharge Under a Second Term Trump Presidency?

Ambassador Thomas Nides traveled to the UAE on March 29 to lead the U.S. delegation to the inaugural Abraham Accords Festival and Games at the Expo 2020 Dubai. Ministers of Culture from Israel, Bahrain, Morocco, and the UAE toured Abraham Accords partner pavilions. (David Azagury, U.S. Embassy Jerusalem)

The signing of the Abraham Accords in Donald Trump's first term ushered in a transformation in the relationship between Israel and the world’s Arab nations. With the United States’s strong bipartisan support, over four short months, between August and December 2020, four countries followed Egypt and Jordan’s bold leadership – they moved to initiate the diplomatic process to normalize bilateral ties with Israel. In signing these agreements, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Israel, shortly followed by Kosovo, Sudan, and Morocco, signaled an era meant to invite peace, prosperity and economic opportunities.

An Abraham Accords under a second Trump presidency?

While former President Biden criticized much of his predecessor's policies, he fully embraced one key pillar of Donald Trump's Middle East policy — the Abraham Accords.  The Abraham Accords attempted to show a disconnect between Israel-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian issues, creating a new framework that would prioritize a stable, more secure Middle East. Biden’s team saw the Abraham Accords as a tool to promote stability. President Biden had hoped to expand the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia, but could not achieve that objective.

• New economic partnerships in the Middle East

  
  

On Trump’s first stop of his four-day diplomatic tour to the Gulf states in May 2025, he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a bilateral meeting in Riyadh, where he secured a major $142 billion arms deal.

However, a key component to recharge the accords, Israel-Saudi normalization, was not part of the conversation, with the Trump administration suggesting the moment was not yet right, citing the ongoing Gaza war.  

• Promotion of more stability in the Middle East
  

The accords have weathered even the Hamas terror attack of October 7, 2023, which apparently shows this new paradigm of peace is far more critical to American national security than resolving the Palestinian issue. President Trump’s return to the White House has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deepen and expand the circle of peace and cooperation. 

After President Trump’s election in November 2024, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli lawmakers that Israel's war in Gaza had offered opportunities to sign new peace accords with Arab nations and "dramatically change the face of" the Middle East. "Moderate Arab countries view Israel as a regional power and a potential ally. I intend to seize this opportunity to the fullest. Together with our American friends, I plan to expand the Abraham Accords... and thus change even more dramatically the face of the Middle East."

• Potential to bring in more Arab nations as part of the Abraham Accords
  

Israel and Syria have been at war since 1948. When Bashar al-Assad became President of Syria in July 2000, relations between Iran and Syria intensified, and with it, enmity toward Israel. New Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has expressed his openness to pursuing peace with Israel under certain conditions, marking a potential turning point for a country embroiled in long conflict and isolation. On his Gulf tour, Trump announced he would lift US sanctions on Syria and would meet with Syria’s new leader.

However, after Syria expressed interest in joining the Abraham Accords to US lawmakers, the Syrian channel Syria TV reported that the government had written a letter to the US, claiming that Israel is occupying its lands. Sources told the Syrian channel that the government noted that the Abraham Accords are with "countries whose lands Israel does not occupy, and therefore Syria cannot be a part of them."

Wrap-up

As President Trump said, he would use the momentum of the agreed-upon Gaza ceasefire deal to expand the Abraham Accords. “We will continue promoting peace through strength throughout the region, as we build upon the momentum of this ceasefire to further expand the Historic Abraham Accords.” 

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office earlier this year, President Trump reiterated his claim that additional countries will normalize relations with Israel through brokering from the US. “We are going to be filling it up very rapidly… A lot of countries want to come into the Abraham Accords.”

---

Uri Pilichowski is an author, speaker, and senior educator at institutions around the world.